Global Courant
PARIS –
An 11-year-old British girl was shot dead Saturday in Saint-Herbot, a hamlet in Brittany, western France, according to local prosecutors.
The girl’s parents were seriously injured in the shooting. Her 8-year-old sister escaped and was found “unharmed but in a state of shock,” Quimper prosecutor Carine Halley said in a statement Sunday.
The family were in their garden when their 71-year-old Dutch neighbor appeared with a firearm and started firing several times in their direction before locking himself in his home with his wife, authorities say.
Police intervened at 10 p.m. local time. The 11-year-old was found dead and her father suffered a life-threatening head injury, while her mother was also injured but not in critical condition, Halley said.
An hour later, the Dutch man and his wife surrendered and were taken into custody.
“We thought they were playing with fireworks,” Yannick, a neighbor who heard the gunfire, told CNN affiliate BFMTV.
“The youngest girl came running to the neighbors and shouted, ‘My sister is dead, my sister is dead,'” Yannick said.
Halley said on Sunday that “the motives for the tragedy are not yet known.” But according to the initial investigation, “It appears that there had been a dispute between the two neighbors over a piece of land adjacent to the two properties for years.”
The Quimper public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into allegations of voluntary manslaughter of a minor and attempted murder.
Marguerite Bleuzen, the mayor of Plonévez-du-Faou, a town bordering Saint-Herbot, told BFMTV on Sunday that she was made aware of a dispute between neighbors several years ago.
“I intervened with my deputies when we were elected. There was a problem with the land, complaints about noise,” Bleuzen said.
“I’m stunned,” the mayor added.
